Yesterday, the man's daughters broke down as he was remanded in custody after being convicted of 87 counts of rape and sexual assault against three of his children.

Following the conviction, the court heard from Detective Garda Deirdre Walsh that the man has previous convictions for indecent assault.

Mr Justice George Birmingham, sitting in the Central Criminal Court, ordered that the man be placed on the sex offenders' register and remanded him in custody until sentencing in October.

A jury had found the man guilty of the majority of the 113 charges against him on Thursday and returned another nine convictions yesterday.

They acquitted him of two counts of sexual assault but failed to agree on verdicts for another seven charges. The judge had previously ordered them to return not guilty verdicts on a further 17 counts.

Daughters

The Dublin man had pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting, raping and orally raping two daughters between the ages of five and 11 and sexually assaulting his son from the age of three to six at various locations between1997 and 2002.

The abuse happened in locations around the country, including shopping centre toilets and on the DART.

Evidence was heard that after the HSE had taken one of the girls into a care home, the accused would get her to run away, so that he could rape her.

The court heard evidence that the three children were first taken into care in February 2000 but the two female complainants were returned home later that year on condition that the accused leave the family home.

He told the court during his evidence that his family persuaded him to return some weeks later.

A court made an order requiring that the children be returned to care in October 2001. The family absconded out of the Dublin area for a time but were later found by gardai and the children returned to care.

The girls were placed in care homes, from which they repeatedly escaped. Later, they were placed in foster homes.

The boy was placed with a foster family, from which he absconded only once.

The eldest girl, who is now 19, told Ms Isobel Kennedy SC, prosecuting, that she was sexually abused from the age of six. She said after she was initially taken into care, she ran away and was abused by her father when he picked her up in a car.

The second daughter, now 18, said she was sexually abused from the age of four by her father "in the sitting room, his room, my room or the car".

The son, now 17, gave evidence that his father sexually abused him in his bedroom and in the bathroom from the age of three until he was six, when he was taken into care and placed with a foster family.